Counties of Albania

Updates:

An administrative reform is scheduled for 2015. The communes (komuna) will be abolished and absorbed by the
municipalities (bashkia), along with a few mergers or splits, resulting in 61 municipalities subordinate to the
counties.

Jose Gavinha sent me the results of the Albanian census of 2011-10-01, found at source [3].

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number II-1, dated 2010-02-03, changes the ISO codes for nine counties, prefixing a '0' to each
of the one-digit codes. Now all the county codes are two digits.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-6, dated 2004-03-08, shows a change in terminology. Formerly, the top-level
subdivisions of Albania were called prefectures, or prefekturė in Albanian. According to the new document, they
should be called counties (qark). (However, the statistics bureau's "Albania in Figures" uses the term prefekturat,
or prefectures in English.) ISO's format indicates that it considers the districts as the primary subdivisions of
Albania, and the counties are regarded just as groupings of districts.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It lists the twelve new counties, assigns ISO codes
to them, and changes two district names and one district code. Laē (ISO code LA) was changed to Kurbin
(KB), and Malėsia e Madhe was changed to Malėsi e Madhe. FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, issued on
2004-10-01, assigns FIPS codes to the new counties.

Country overview:

Short name

ALBANIA

ISO code

AL

FIPS code

AL

Language

Albanian (sq)

Time zone

+1 ~

Capital

Tirana

Albania was still part of Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century. It declared its independence in 1912.
The country went through several forms of government, including occupation during the World Wars, until it became
a republic on 1946-01-11.

Other names of country:

Albanian: Shqipėria, Republika e Shqipėrisė (formal)

Danish: Albanien

Dutch: Albaniė, Republiek Albaniė (formal)

English: Republic of Albania (formal)

Finnish: Albania

French: Albanie f

German: Albanien n

Icelandic: Albanķa

Italian: Albania f

Norwegian: Albania, Republikken Albania (formal)

Portuguese: Albānia, Repśblica f da Albānia f (formal)

Russian: Республика Албания (formal)

Spanish: Albania f

Swedish: Albanien

Turkish: Arnavutluk

Origin of name:

Ancient inhabitants were called Albanoi by Ptolemy. Shqipėria is Albanian for "land of the men of the eagle".

Postal codes:

Further subdivisions:

Underneath the counties there are 36 rrethe (districts), currently not functioning. Under them there are 308 communes
and 65 municipalities.

Territorial extent:

Vlorė includes Saseno (Sazan) Island.

The UN LOCODE page for Albania lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names:

Tiranė: from Ancient Greek Tyrrenos: Etruscans; or, named after Tehran, Iran, to commemorate a victory

Vlorė: from Ancient Greek aulon: narrow passage, strait

Change history:

1912-11-28: Albania, consisting of the vilayet of Scutari and parts of Monastir and Yanina, declared
independence from Turkey.

1913-11-22: A law titled The Appropriate Code of Civil Administration in Albania took effect. Under it, Albania
was divided into eight prefectures: Berati, Dibra, Durrėsi, Elbasani, Gjirokastra, Korēa, Shkodra and Vlora. The
prefectures were divided into sub-prefectures, and then into krahina. "At various points in time, the sub-prefecture
was called the district (rreth)." (Source [3])

1923: Albania acquired a strip of territory in the south from Greece.

~1925: Albania had the following ten prefectures, further subdivided into 57 districts. Dibėr was later renamed
Peshkopi, and Kukės renamed Kosovo. The number of districts was 39 in 1927, 30 in 1934, and 61 in 1945.

Prefecture

Pop-1930

Pop-1945

Area(km.²)

Capital

Became

Berat

142,616

126,913

3,666

Berat

Berat, Fier, Lushnjė, Skrapar

Dibėr

86,992

83,677

2,151

Peshkopijė

Dibėr, Mat

Durrės

77,890

104,488

1,550

Durrės

Durrės, Krujė

Elbasan

111,422

111,286

3,539

Elbasan

Elbasan, Gramsh, Librazhd

Gjinokastėr

143,926

121,253

4,125

Gjinokastėr

Gjirokastėr, Pėrmet, Sarandė, Tepelenė

Korēė

147,536

149,433

3,750

Korēė

Kolonjė, Korēė, Pogradec

Kukės

49,081

49,344

2,038

Kukės

Kukės, Tropojė

Shkodėr

132,336

157,665

5,560

Scutari

Lezhė, Mirditė, Pukė, Shkodėr

Tirana

57,808

93,216

911

Tirana

Tiranė

Vlonė

53,461

115,080

1,448

Vlonė

Vlorė

1,003,068

1,112,355

28,738

Pop-1930: 1930 census.

Pop-1945: 1945 census.

Became: Districts formed from this prefecture in 1958.

1946: A new administrative structure was inaugurated. There were 10 prefectures and 39 sub-prefectures. The
tertiary level consisted partly of localities, and the following year, all remaining communes were replaced by
localities; there were also cities and villages.

1992-06-10: Law No. 7572 created ten new districts. Bulqizė district split from Dibėr; Delvinė district split
from Sarandė; Devoll district split from Korēė; Has district split from Kukės; Kavajė district split from Durrės;
Kuēovė district split from Berat; Laē district split from Krujė; Malesia e Madhe district split from Shkodėr;
Mallakastėr district split from Fier; Peqin district split from Elbasan. The FIPS standard, which had previously
listed Tiranė district and Tiranė qytet (municipality) as separate entities, merged them into one.

1992-09-22: Law No. 7608 created twelve qark (counties, or regions), each one consisting of two to four
districts. Apparently their competency was limited at first, but expanded in 1995. The districts continued to exist.

1998-11-28: Albania's new Constitution took effect. It specified that the districts would be replaced as
administrative units by the regions. The communes and municipalities would remain as secondary subdivisions. This
provision was not implemented until 2000 (see below).

1998-12-15: ISO 3166-2 published, superseding ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft standard). Code for Peqin district changed
from PG to PQ; for Tepelenė, from SP to TE; for Tropojė, from
BC to TP. This change fixed an error in the draft standard, where the same code
PG had been assigned to two districts.

1999-03-01: FIPS PUB 10-4 Change Notice 2 issued. It assigned FIPS codes from AL29 to
AL38 to the ten districts created in 1991, and AL39 to Tiranė municipality (not
shown in other sources). The other FIPS codes listed below were unchanged.

~1999: Name of Laē district changed to Kurbin. This change was reported in Change Notice 4 to FIPS
PUB 10-4, dated 2000-02-25. In ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2, dated 2002-05-21, the name change is
reported and the corresponding code is changed from LA to KB.

The districts were then as listed here:

District

ISO

FIPS

Population

Area(km.²)

County

Capital

Berat

BR

AL01

128,410

915

Berat

Berat

Bulqizė

BU

AL29

42,985

718

Dibėr

Bulqizė

Delvinė

DL

AL30

10,859

367

Vlorė

Delvinė

Devoll

DV

AL31

34,744

429

Korēė

Bilisht

Dibėr

DI

AL02

86,144

761

Dibėr

Peshkopi

Durrės

DR

AL03

182,988

455

Durrės

Durrės

Elbasan

EL

AL04

224,974

1,290

Elbasan

Elbasan

Fier

FR

AL05

200,154

850

Fier

Fier

Gjirokastėr

GJ

AL06

55,991

1,137

Gjirokastėr

Gjirokastėr

Gramsh

GR

AL07

35,723

695

Elbasan

Gramsh

Has

HA

AL32

19,842

374

Kukės

Krumė

Kavajė

KA

AL33

78,415

393

Tiranė

Kavajė

Kolonjė

ER

AL08

17,179

805

Korēė

Ersekė

Korēė

KO

AL09

143,499

1,752

Korēė

Korēė

Krujė

KR

AL10

64,357

372

Durrės

Krujė

Kuēovė

KC

AL34

35,571

112

Berat

Kuēovė

Kukės

KU

AL11

64,054

956

Kukės

Kukės

Kurbin

KB

AL35

54,519

235

Lezhė

Laē

Lezhė

LE

AL12

68,218

479

Lezhė

Lezhė

Librazhd

LB

AL13

72,520

1,102

Elbasan

Librazhd

Lushnjė

LU

AL14

144,351

712

Fier

Lushnjė

Malesia e Madhe

MM

AL36

36,770

897

Shkodėr

Koplik

Mallakastėr

MK

AL37

39,881

325

Fier

Ballsh

Mat

MT

AL15

61,906

1,028

Dibėr

Burrel

Mirditė

MR

AL16

37,055

867

Lezhė

Rrėshen

Peqin

PQ

AL38

32,920

191

Elbasan

Peqin

Pėrmet

PR

AL17

25,837

929

Gjirokastėr

Pėrmet

Pogradec

PG

AL18

70,900

725

Korēė

Pogradec

Pukė

PU

AL19

34,454

1,034

Shkodėr

Pukė

Sarandė

SR

AL20

35,235

730

Vlorė

Sarandė

Shkodėr

SH

AL21

185,794

1,631

Shkodėr

Shkodėr

Skrapar

SK

AL22

29,874

775

Berat

Ēorovodė

Tepelenė

TE

AL23

32,465

817

Gjirokastėr

Tepelenė

Tiranė

TR

AL28

523,150

1,193

Tiranė

Tiranė

Tropojė

TP

AL26

28,154

1,043

Kukės

Bajram Curri

Vlorė

VL

AL27

147,267

1,609

Vlorė

Vlorė

36 districts

3,087,159

28,703

ISO: District codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a globalcontext, prefix
"AL-" to the code (ex: AL-SK represents Skrapar).

FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard.

Population: 2001-04-01 census.

County: Post-1993.

2000-07-31: Law No. 8653 replaced the districts by the regions as administrative units.